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Sunday, August 14, 2016

Controversy in Fiction: Banned Books

Welcome to my newest series, Controversy in Fiction! This
month, I’ll be addressing banned books, part one in my five-part series.

Disclaimer: Because of the nature of this series, I
don’t expect all of my readers to agree with me. While I will attempt to
accurately present both sides of particular issues, I will take sides on some
issues and can’t expect to cover every last issue in existence. I apologize in
advance for anybody who is offended for religious/political/book-loving
reasons; it is not my intent. Please no hateful comments as this is a
children-friendly blog.

Caution: This post contains spoilers for The Outsiders for the purpose of
discussing why it’s sometimes banned.

Back in my undergraduate days at Evangel, I took a course on
Young Adult fiction. It was completely awesome. We got to read some of my
favorite genres for homework, and I discovered some of my treasured books too!
One of our first weeks of the class, we talked about banned books.

Banned books are those restricted by libraries, schools,
religious institutions, etc. for the purpose of preventing children or others
from reading content considered inappropriate. Books may be banned for various
specific reasons including, but not limited to profanity, violence, sexually
explicit content, or religious or political agendas.

For our assigned reading, our class read The Outsiders. When I first picked up
the book (I borrowed a copy from my professor), I thought, “Huh, this looks okay.” I wasn’t so sure about it. But
before I knew it, I’d finished the book and thoroughly enjoyed it! When my
sister (12 at the time) had to read the book for her class, she completely fell
in love with the story and the characters. My mom skeptically picked up the
book, but in the end, she liked the story.

Yet The Outsiders
is not a happy book. It contains smoking, gangs, and violence. It isn’t really
much of a surprise that it should be among the banned books. Why would teachers
want children reading books where the main characters smoke or (SPOILER ALERT)
hide from the law for killing somebody in self-defense? (END SPOILER ALERT)

Is this the kind of book parents would want their children
to read? Probably not. But it does have its redeeming values (self-sacrifice,
compassion, etc.), and it is for these qualities that many readers will
advocate for reading the book and encouraging others to do so.

Throughout my life, I’ve never had many problems with banned
books, with a few exceptions, of course. My parents were pretty generous with
what they let me read. My mom considered me mature enough to read This Present Darkness at age 14. (FYI, I
was not. I was terrified of that book, even though I thought it was really good.)

But at the same time, I wasn’t allowed to read the Harry Potter books until I was 16. I
have since finished the series, much to my mom’s chagrin. And while I don’t
believe the books are inherently bad,
(I quite enjoyed them actually) I respect my parents’ decisions. I was raised
in a conservative, Christian family, and my parents wanted to protect me from
sorcery, even in fiction.

Similarly, my sister once attended a private school that
banned Fifty Shades of Gray.
Personally, I will put a book down if it has sexually explicit content. In
fact, most of the time, I’ll tolerate a book if it has a couple kissing scenes.
(See 3
Reasons I Don’t Read Romance Novels)

Yet while many book banning’s I’ve experienced may have good
intentions, there are still associations who would rather ban books to exercise
control. In Fahrenheit 451, all books
were outlawed country-wide for encouraging people to think. In The Book Thief, Nazis burned books for
their radical agendas. And in Ink and
Bone, certain knowledge was forbidden for the sake of the Great Library’s
control.

But as far as I’ve seen, most of the book banning that
occurs today has good intentions, particularly the protection of children’s
innocence, rather than governmental control. But eventually all children will
grow up. While it may be important to maintain a degree of discretion when choosing
books, they can be eye-opening.

After all, books can teach you new things.

Books can help you become a better person.

Books can warn you about the dangers of certain people and
relationships.

Ultimately, I believe books should be picked up based on
personal preference. Yes, knowledge can be dangerous. But the real danger for
people, especially readers, comes when others exercise governmental control
over reading. But even in the US, where so many people know how to read, they
don’t. Reading is often viewed as a chore or work rather than a preferred pastime.

And it’s like Ray Bradbury once said, “You don’t have to
burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”